Once Dr. Mellinkoff invited me to join him at the hospital to discuss interesting cases with his students . The case at hand was a Guatemalan man, aged 34, who had a fever and many other medical problems. His condition was not improving, and there was not much hope he would live.

    Dr. Mellinkoff asked to see the patient. He introduced himself in Spanish and, in a very gentle voice, asked how he felt. The patient smiled and said everything was all right. Then the doctor asked if he was able to eat. The patient said that he had no desire to eat.

    “ Are you getting food you like? ”

    The patient said nothing.

    “ Do you get the kind of food you have at home? ”

    The answer was no.

    The doctor put his hand on the man's shoulder and his voice was very soft.

    “If , you had food that you liked , would you eat it? ”

    “Yes , yes. ” the patient said.

    The change in the patient's appearance couldn't have been more obvious. Nothing was said, but it was easy to tell that a message had been sent and had also been received.

    Later, the doctor asked why the Guatemalan man wasn't getting food he could eat. One of the students said, “ We all know how difficult it is to get the kitchen to make special meals. ”

    “ Suppose, ” the doctor replied, “ you felt a certain medicine was absolutely necessary but that our hospital didn't carry it, would you accept defeat or would you insist the hospital meet your request? ”

    “ I would probably insist, ” the student said.

    “ Very well, ” the doctor said. “ You might want to try the same method in the kitchen. It won't be easy, but I can help you. Meanwhile, let's get some food inside this man as fast as possible, and stay with it. Or he'll be killed by hunger. By the way, there must be someone among you who can speak Spanish. If we want to make real progress, we need to be able to talk with him. ”

    Three weeks later, Dr. Mellinkoff told me that the Guatemalan man had left the hospital under his own power. It takes more than medicine to help sick people; you also have to talk to them and make them comfortable.

    Some people think that success is only for those with talent or those who grow up in the right family, and others believe that success mostly comes down to luck. I'm not going to say luck, talent, and circumstances don't come into play because they do. Some people are born into the right family while others are born with great intelligence, and that's just the reality of how life is.

    However, to succeed in life, one first needs to set a goal and then gradually make it more practical. And, in addition to that, in order to get really good at something, one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours studying and practising. To become great at certain things, it'll require even more time, time that most people won't put in.

    This is a big reason why many successful people advise you to do something you love. If you don't enjoy what you do, it is going to feel like unbearable pain and will likely make you quit well before you ever become good at it.

    When you see people exhibiting some great skills or having achieved great success, you know that they have put in a huge part of their life to get there at a huge cost. It's sometimes easy to think they got lucky or they were born with some rare talent, but thinking that way does you no good, and there's a huge chance that you're wrong anyway.

    Whatever you do, if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out, almost to the point of addiction, and over a long period of time. If you're not willing to put in the time and work, don't expect to receive any rewards. Consistent, hard work won't guarantee you the level of success you may want, but it will guarantee that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into.

The Climb to the Top

    My life as a kid was a sweet life. I lived in a beautiful house with the beautiful surroundings in Puerto Rico. There was one particular thing I loved and it was a huge tree that was in my backyard. As a child, I used to climb the tree every day. Every time I went, I climbed higher and higher, reaching new branches, obstacles, and pathways on my way up. One day, I reached the top and I could see my island. I felt I was on top of the world, and nothing could stop me. Then, there was the day that seemed like the end of my life. This specific day changed my life forever.

It was a nice summer day. After breakfast, my family headed to the park to see my baseball game. In the evening we went to a carnival (嘉年华) in my town. My grandma was selling blankets under a tent. Suddenly, the mood of the day changed when my parents took me to my grandma's tent. Still to this day, I remember the exact words my dad said to me, "Son, how would you like to move to the United States?" I couldn't believe what he said. I then ran away from him as the tears rolled down my cheeks. My perfect life was being taken away from me.

    Two weeks later, we arrived at New York in late July, and my aunt and uncle drove us to Springfield，Massachusetts where we lived for seven years. Once we got there, I met my mom's family for the first time. September came and school started. I was afraid to go to a new school and make new friends. Most kids ignored me and some tried to talk to me, but I couldn't understand them or say anything. My first year in the United States was not fun or easy but I worked hard and got through it.

    Now that I'm grown, I look back on the journey that I've been through: living in a new place with no friends, new language, and new schools. Despite all those problems, I still remembered that special tree. That tree taught me to never give up and reach higher. I have beaten every difficulty that I have met in life and I just kept moving forward. My perfect life was never taken away from me; it has just started.

    A thrilling polar competition between two adventurers to cross Antarctica alone, unsupported and unassisted had a happy ending with both explorers achieving the unprecedented feat (功绩). American professional athlete Colin O'Brady and British Army Captain Louis Rudd set off a mile apart at the same time on November 3, 2018, from the Atlantic coast with the aim to become the first person to ski across the remote continent alone.

    Louis Rudd maintained the lead at first. However, O'Brady caught up with Rudd on November10 and never let the British man get close to him again. O'Brady was the first to conquer the 930 mile icy land, arriving at the Ross Ice Shelf on the Pacific coast by way of the South Pole on December 26, 2018. The 33-year-old spent 54 days skiing the world's coldest continent while pulling a 300-pound sled(雪橇) with supplies.

    Instead of leaving the harsh environment after completing the historic adventure, the explorer set up a tent on the world's largest ice sheet and waited patiently for Rudd to complete the great undertaking. On December 29, just three days after O'Brady arrived, the British explorer finished his adventure, becoming the world's second person to complete the solo crossing of the frozen continent.

Rudd was not disappointed at being second since he never considered it to be a     "race". Besides, the 49-year-old British Army Captain had a more selfless motive for attempting the feat. He was doing it in memory of his friend Henry Worsley, who had introduced him to polar exploration. The disaster happened while Worsley was trying to cross the continent alone in 2016. Rudd said, "I didn't want to get drawn into a race. All that mattered to me was that I completed it, and that I skied solo and unsupported, carrying the flag with Henry's name on it."

    After spending a few days camping 10 feet away from each other, the two adventurers were picked up by a helicopter to the South Pole scientific research station.

    With the Chinese language growing in popularity, the UK government plans to invest (投资)10 million pounds to help more kids learn Mandarin(普通话).Do you think it is necessary for the UK pupils to learn Mandarin? Some people share their opinions online.

    Tsd(UK):The learning of any language can be valuable and rewarding, but it is not suitable for everyone. Chinese is a difficult language to learn and the UK has a poor reputation for teaching foreign languages. Why should they learn Chinese when most people in the world speak English?

    Mark(US):I studied French for 2 years in high school and German for 4 years in college. I studied Mandarin informally for about 4 months before moving to China. Now I speak Mandarin every day as my wife doesn't speak English. But it is far from being fluent, learning additional languages is a great thing, which offers a different perspective on the world around us. Nowadays, it's almost necessary to be able to speak more than just your native tongue.

George(UK):No, unless they're taught from a very early stage of childhood. Mandarin is so difficult. If China really is going to dominate the world, it'll have to do so by speaking the world's dominant language—English.

    Sam(UK):I don't think Chinese will become as widely spoken throughout the world as English. It is too difficult to learn as a second language. To learn Chinese you completely have to devote yourself to learning how to write and read it. If you have to learn it besides other subjects you can't be good at it. But Chinese will become more popular, and that is a good thing.

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